Disappear
by Dr Namgge
Summary: It all started with the appearance of a bottle. Now it seems Sonic's entire life is disappearing piece by piece. As whole chunks simply vanish into thin air, the hedgehog, aided by his friends the Chaotix, must try and figure out where everything is going and get it all back. Yet for everything that has disappeared, old threats remain, desperate to see Sonic disappear forever.
1. Dawn's Rising

Sonic had always loved dawn. There was something about the way early mornings lit up the world, combined with the fact that there were very few people around that made it a joy to be running at this time.

Admittedly, it was rare that the hedgehog would be up this early, but today something had kept him awake. For most the night Sonic had just laid there, unable to properly rest. He spent most the night trying, but officially gave up around five AM, and was off on a sprint several miles away just minutes later.

Sonic kept running west, away from the sun for two reasons, firstly to stop the sun getting in his eyes, and secondly, to prolong the early morning look. The hedgehog hadn't done much morning running, so seeing the world like this allowed him to explore the places he'd been millions of times and get a chance to glimpse them in an entirely new light.

There was one other benefit to be had, bar the scant few early workers no-one was around, and there was very little traffic, allowing him to enjoy the full luxury of going full pelt on smooth tarmac without worry for traffic. At a slow pace, sidewalks and pavements were smooth, but bursting down at hundreds of miles an hour, the difference became obvious, even with the padding in Sonic's now trademark red sneakers.

Sonic eventually found himself by a cliff edge facing out into the ocean. This was lands' end, the point defined as geographically furthest from the centre of the island. The blue hedgehog decided to take a few minutes just to sit here, watching the ocean. Sonic detested being in water, but from here he felt far enough away for it to not worry him.

The ocean lapped lazily against the beach bellow. Sonic sat there, watching the currents, relaxing and enjoying a moment of calm. As much as Sonic would tell everyone he loved to go running and exploring, even he would admit that if you didn't stop to look to where you'd run to you might just as well be running in circles.

The morning was calm, and bar the seagulls squawking, the only noise came from the ocean itself. But still, after ten minutes, Sonic was bored with the ocean, and decided he needed to explore just a little bit more, to find a different place to take in the sights.

The sky had other ideas. A crackle of electricity shot through the air, causing Sonic to shiver. He looked towards the source, an ominous swirling vortex, hanging in the sky over the sea. It fizzled slightly, before dropping something and disappearing.

"What was that?" Sonic asked rhetorically, "I'd better go check that out."

This was enough to excite Sonic. Carefully, the hedgehog made his way down to the beach, eager to get a better look at what had just appeared. The tide slowly bought the object closer, making Sonic anxious with anticipation. Whatever it was, it wasn't alive, so Sonic wasn't willing to get in the water to fish it out. Instead, the hedgehog waited, albeit very impatiently, with the longest stick he could find on the beach ready to pull it closer.

As it drifted in Sonic saw it was a note, curled up inside a glass bottle, with a cork in the top. Prying at it with the stick, the hedgehog eventually got it close enough to pick up. As the hedgehog opened the bottle a faint smell of cinders filled his nose.

The hedgehog's eyes scanned the note. Its contents were indecipherable, written in a language the hedgehog didn't even recognise, much less understand. Filled with fresh energy, Sonic dashed back through the zones, noticing more people on the way back as he made his way back to where he knew Tails was.

The young fox was sound asleep when Sonic returned; still carrying the bottle he'd retrieved. Unfortunately for Tails' sleep, Sonic was not a patient hedgehog.

"Tails," Sonic said relatively loudly, "Hey Tails, you awake yet li'l buddy?"

Tails rolled over to face the hedgehog, "No," He murmured, before snoring.

Sonic sat there for a moment, unsure whether his friend was kidding or sleep talking. Assuming the former, Sonic kept talking. "Tails, I found this in the ocean just now." Sonic presented the bottle to the fox.

Tails opened his eyes. It was still much too early for the fox; even if his alarm was due to go off shortly. "You woke me up for a bottle?"

"There's a note in it."

"...and?" Tails asked, "What's so special about a message in a bottle?"

"I don't know."

Tails shook his head wearily, "Well what's written on it?"

"I can't tell," Sonic said, "The writing doesn't look like any I've ever seen." The hedgehog passed the note to the fox.

"So you woke me for a note in a foreign language?" Tails was evidently not a morning person, or at least, not a six in the morning person.

"But it fell out the sky!" Sonic said, trying to convince his younger buddy to see it as important.

The fox sat up in his bed. It was pretty obvious that he wasn't going to be able to get rid of Sonic as easily as he hoped. The fox questioned the hedgehog's last comment, his eyes trying their best to look confused, but only managing fatigued.

"There was a burst of energy, and a big swirling thing opened in the clouds. This bottle fell out into the ocean. I don't think it's from our world."

Tails had finally figured out what would get rid of Sonic. "So you want me to 'do something sciencey'," the fox said, almost mocking Sonic for his simple way of describing experimentation, "to this bottle to see if it's fallen from out of space or something?"

"Yes," Sonic said, before adding, "If you wouldn't mind."

"Fine," Tails relented, "I'll do an experiment, _later_." he emphasised, "When I properly wake up, now go away."

Sonic finally relented. The fox closed his eyes again, and just started to drift off when Sonic slammed one of the doors.


	2. Overworked and Underclued

The Chaotix detective agency has been unusually busy for the last week. So much so that Vector had been turning down jobs, or at least those that weren't willing to pay extra. The crocodile seemed to have finally made a success of the company, and was enjoying having so much work, and so many mysteries to solve.

Or he would be, had he actually been successful in solving any of them. The last month had seen the detective agency constantly investigating all sorts of various crimes, from houses being emptied while the occupants were away, to missing historical artefacts, to searching for missing people.

Vector sat down at his desk, and leaned his head back in his hands. For a moment, he didn't want to think about it. It was damning to his company's reputation that he hadn't been able to make as much as a dent in any of these cases.

He looked back at his desk, a pile of paperwork still staring him the face. Buried amongst it were client notes, unpaid bills, and a list of dead-end leads for various cases, all of which he and his two co-workers had explored thoroughly.

"Hey Vector," Charmy loudly announced, "We're back!" the bee said as he flew into the office, accompanied by a much calmer Chameleon named Espio.

"Any luck boys?"

"We didn't find anything," Espio admitted, disappointed to have come back once again empty handed.

Vector didn't blink. Over the last few days he'd heard this quite often. The three of them had had several cases that had been slow to reveal anything, and still had a couple of cases they couldn't solve, such as whatever had happened to that reporter from Northside Island, but in the last few days they'd not had a single clue.

"It's just a run of bad luck boys; we'll catch a break soon." Vector said, trying to boost morale.

Espio looked to the crocodile, not entirely convinced, but not willing to deny the idea either. Charmy on the other hand wasn't even disappointed by the lack of clues, leading Espio to believe Vector's words were for his own morale just as much as everyone else's.

"It's funny though," Vector added, "The most cases we've had in months, and we've got nothin' on any of 'em. I mean why anyone would even wanna steal a whole case of nearly two hundred pairs of chopsticks," the crocodile asked aloud.

"Maybe to build a really long poking device," Charmy grinned, trying to be helpful.

Neither the chameleon nor the larger crocodile commented. The three of them looked at each other, disheartened when the phone rang. Hesitantly Vector picked it up.

"Hello," he said, "Chaotix Detective Agency office, Vector speakin'."

Espio and Charmy looked at each other as Vector began taking notes. The crocodile eagerly wrote down indecipherable scrawls into a notepad, nodding and agreeing his way through the conversation before hanging up.

"Alright," the crocodile said as he turned back to his employees, "We've got another one."

"But why are we taking on another case when we've so many already?" Charmy asked.

"Because this one's offerin' triple pay, an' expenses!" Vector beamed, "It's a doozy of a case too." The crocodile continued, watching Charmy start frantically flying as Espio leant his back to a wall. "Two days ago, twelve slot machines disappeared from a casino. No sign of a struggle. The owner's already looked over da security footage. At half five they're there, then two minutes later, they're gone."

Espio's eyes lit up. "Wait, five thirty, two days ago?"

The crocodile nodded, "No sign of 'em."

"I've heard that before," The chameleon said, dashing for a filing cabinet. "That's the same time that the supermarket car park had all the steering wheels go missing." Espio laid a file down on the table for the others to see.

Vector read the file, "five thirty AM, on Tuesday the twelfth. Hang on, da twelfth," the green reptile thought, "Isn't that the day dat the mayor said the ceremonial key to tha Westopolis City disappeared?"

Charmy looked at the two, "Yeah, and it's the day the chopsticks vanished too. I bet they're all connected. There must be some massive criminal conspiracy goin' on, and we're gonna have to go and stop it right now!"

"Hold your horse Charmy," Vector said, trying to calm the bee down. "As much as ya might wanna get out an' search, we're gonna have to buckle down here. Every case we've still got unsolved, they might give us a bigger picture to what's goin' on 'ere."

The three spent the afternoon reviewing paperwork, arranging it into three piles, things that disappeared on the twelfth, things that went missing four days earlier, on the eighth, and things that weren't fully accounted for, such as the case of the Beaver family who came back from holiday just yesterday to find half their houses woodwork missing.

All in all most the cases had the same things in common, occurred on, or around, two set times, five thirty on the twelfth, or ten O'clock on the eighth, and all involved seemingly random and insignificant items going missing. But other than the times, Vector couldn't see a pattern.

"We've looked at all dese cases indahvidually, and now together, and still nuffin'."

"Perhaps we're overlooking something," the chameleon answered, getting up from his position amongst the paperwork. "Maybe we shouldn't be thinking about what the connection is, but rather, what happened?"

"Whaddya mean?"

"Well," the chameleon said calmly, "we know that at these two times, several things happened all at once, none of them near each other. So this isn't a single group session, like when a whole street gets burgled."

"Hmm, good point," Vector said, "But the items taken, they're really random. Steerin' wheels, three porcelain plates from a series of eighteen, five gallons of cookin' oil. I mean I've known criminals to take some odd stuff in my time, but what could anyone want with that?"

"True," Espio conceded, "But I just think there's something we're missing. "

"Maybe we should head to the casino anyway, we might find more clues," Charmy insisted. It was obvious to the other two that the bee had become very bored of an afternoon stuck indoors, particularly on such a sunny day.

"Charmy's right," Vector answered, "We've already poured over these cases, and it's been a brick wall. Maybe the missin' slot machines will give us a clue on all of da other stuff too. Grab your gear boys, we're headin' out."


	3. Submerged Woes

Robotnik had been in hiding. His latest place of residence, the remains of a crashed airship, now converted into a fully functioning underwater base. His robots had done a grand job of converting all the various components, and tying it to a stable power source to allow the human to work fully and survive, if not necessarily thrive in the harsh landscape underwater.

But the human was far from happy. Yes, he was very well hidden, and yes, he had been lucky to survive, but this was not a fitting way for man of his brilliance to live. Hiding in the water; awaiting confirmation from his external forces that it was safe to do anything, and forced to wait for his robots to complete tasks before he was able to act was far from ideal for him.

Being underwater with not a lot to do while repairs were carried out had however given the human a lot of time to think about everything he was presently doing. He still had several legitimate businesses acting as fronts for his schemes, his rockets were still routinely going into space collecting salvage from the remains of various space stations, including the Death Egg, and he still had several undetected hidden bases dotted around the world.

But none of this was consolation for Robotnik. As he once again wandered around the sunken airship base he sighed wearily. His last battle in particular had been exhausting, and he was getting fed up of the way things kept working out for him against Sonic.

Robotnik walked back onto the bridge. A small handful of loyal robots saluted. He barely acknowledged them, instead sitting down in his captain's chair, before sighing. "What's today's status?"

"Engines are still non-functional," one of the robots replied.

"Flooding on port side of deck six" came another response.

"Out of eggs in the fridges" came a third answer.

Robotnik grumbled. He was going to be stuck for a little while longer. "What of the experiments?"

"Test two-twelve failed, test two-thirteen failed, test two-fourteen," replied a robot, "was a success, test two-fifteen..."

"What was that?" Robotnik said, his ears perked up at the news.

"Test two-fourteen was a success," repeated the Egg-Robo, as it stood there, unaware of just how important that statement was.

Eagerly Robotnik got out of his chair. "Keep testing," he said as he headed straight for his quarters, not even caring for the rest of the days status updates. Sure, he had had some partial successes, but this was the first full success.

Dr Robotnik has been busy testing for warp portals. He had recently learned, thanks to his last setback, that the Chaos Emeralds were currently residing in the pocket space out of sync with the rest of the world. Now, thanks to today's test results, he had finally found the precise frequency to get to one of them.

Now all he needed to do was create a powerful enough dimensional gate, and send something in to retrieve the emerald and exit safely with it before the pocket dimension collapsed. He had a small scale gate, all he had to do was scale it up. But, underwater, without too many available resources this was simple not possible.

But what he could do was go looking. Robotnik had heard a lot about the pocket dimension the emeralds often teleported themselves into, and the only thing he knew for certain was that there appearances changed almost every time.

This time however, Robotnik had a head start. He knew the frequency of the dimension of one of the emeralds, and he already had a small gate to use. The human could very easily send a small robot through, fix a camera to it, and at the very least get a preview, and thus begin planning how to get to it.

"You," he said talking to the Flasher that was sat on his labs ceiling, "get down here."

Dutifully the robot flew down to its master. Flashers were small bug like robots, designed for one thing, to provide mobile light sources in dark places. In a pinch they could get hot and use the heat as a weapon, but it was mostly about light, which made them excellent for mining.

The scientist didn't care about this right now. All he cared about was that the robot would fit through the portal. Robotnik ordered another flasher to take this one's place, but he wasn't willing to wait for it to arrive before he broke apart the one that was already there. Working in the dim light provided by emergency lighting, he crudely fitted a standard camera to the top of the robot.

As a new Flasher emerged in the room the original Flasher was ready. It still had its light, though the camera was now the main focus, replacing one of the censors that the robot used to navigate. The robot had also been fitted with a remote control unit that manually over-rid the robots AI, an AI that was ironically originally designed to override the brainpower of small animals.

Robotnik waddled it over to the dimensional gate and carefully placed the modified Flasher down. The scientist then retreated to a safe distance, and began to watch a camera feed. After some basic tests he steered the small robot forwards. On his screen he saw the gate. It looked bigger from the Flasher's perspective. As the robot made its way inside, there was a slight static crackle.

The screen went dead. Robotnik knew to wait for a few moments. He had after all just sent a camera into another world. The feed would no longer be instantaneous. As he waited, the image flickered back. It was grainier, and a little distorted, but it was clear enough.

The special stage was a surrealists painting, with apparent walkways twisting all over the place, splitting apart redundantly only to join up later. It almost looked like a maze, or a race course, Robotnik couldn't tell.

The one thing he could see was a red mist. It slowly began to fill the image, into it completely surrounded Robotnik's screen.

"What is that?" Robotnik asked rhetorically, as the screen began to show nothing but red. Just as the crimson completely took over, the screen went black. A small message, 'Connection Lost' displayed in the centre.


End file.
